Course Syllabus
Writing 50
Healthcare: Performers,
Politicians, and Practitioners
Fall 2006, MW 1-2:50
Enroll Code 45872
Girvetz Room 2119
Instructor: Dr. Heidi Emmerling
Office Location: GIRV 1310
Office Hours: TR 2-3 or by appointment
E-mail: hemmerling@writing.ucsb.edu
Phone: (805) 893-4241
(805) 893 2613 (MSG ONLY)
Website:
www.writingcures.com
Drop Deadline: Wed, 10/4 by
Course Description
This course will focus on health and healthcare through a number of lenses and paradigms. We will first explore how certain professions and diseases are stereotypically portrayed in movies, television shows, and literature. Next, we will study and discuss the politics and financial issues of healthcare in our country. We will also view healthcare through a clinical angle, illness and treatments of various ailments. You will be asked to produce a professional proposal of your topic, an annotated bibliography that documents your research, an audio/visual presentation of your research to benefit and inform your peers in terms of your project, and a final comprehensive research paper that documents the chronology, causes, and consequences of your chosen subject, phenomenon, or event. We will emphasize the reading, thinking, and writing skills involved in independent research including developing questions, designing and planning research, analyzing, contrasting and synthesizing multiple sources and drawing conclusions. You will learn to create new information from what you have researched, asking questions that reach beyond the obvious. The course will finish with an interdisciplinary conference on healthcare, at which students will give brief demonstrations on their research.
Course Objectives
Required Materials
Recommended Materials
Course Requirements and Assignments
Requirements
Conferences
There will be two mandatory
individual conferences in my office, Girvetz
1310. The first will be in the beginning
of the quarter to answer any questions you might have about the course,
policies, assignments—anything—and for me to review any ideas, concerns, etc
with you. This conference will be
outside of class hours (Friday 10/27).
The final conference will be at the end of the quarter to review your
work, points and so forth. This will be
conducted during class hours in my office.
Note 1: In order to pass the course, you must completer and receive passing grades on all assignments
Note 2: There will be no final exam
Assignments (100%): Deadlines
Annotated Bibliography 10% 10/30
Research Proposal 10% 2pp 11/6
Paper draft 10% 5-7pp 11/13
Journal Writing (10x1%) 10%
Conference Presentation 10%
Final Project 40% 15pp 12/6
Attendance and Participation 10%
(includes peer reviews, and degree and quality of participation in class discussions)
JOURNAL WRITING
Each student will prepare 10 one-page journal entries. Most of the entries will be responses to your
research process, and they are designed to help you with your research and
writing process. In “progress reports,” you are invited to help you with your
research project, useful sources for your work, or ways to integrate outside
sources. In particular, I am interested
in your awareness and analysis of possible difficulties you may encounter with
narrowing down/defining/focusing your topic or presenting counter arguments or
writing introductions/conclusions, as well as your expectations to deal with
these challenges. Also, feel free to
share your responses to the project (excitement, difficulties, fears, frustrations)
and discuss creative/challenging/innovative ways of combining ideas and
arguments. It is important that you
submit journal entries on dates due and take these exercises seriously as they
are helpful steps in your research process.
ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY (Due 10/30 10%)
After our visit to the library, you will compile a list of at least 10 sources about your topic. An entry for each source will be 1-2 paragraphs long, and it will contain the following information:
Bibliographic information of the sources
A brief summary of the contents and the main argument of the source
A short commentary on the relevance and potential use of the source
The assignment will follow the MLA format, and it should include a variety of sources (books, journal articles, newspaper articles, chapters in anthologies, internet sources (maximum 3), government publications, personal interviews).
RESEARCH PROPOSAL (Due
11/6 10%)
On two pages, you will introduce the reader to the topic you intend to explore and the argument or point you want to make in your final paper. You should state clearly the direction in which you want to take your project (even though it may change in the process), the sources you intend to use, and the writing strategies you intend to use (organization, division/subdivision, order of your argument).
PAPER DRAFT (Due 11/13 5-7 pp, 10%)
The draft of your paper will give an insight both to you and me about the direction in which your paper is going. “Draft” in this case means the best you can produce at that point so that we can discuss and improve the strength and quality of your argument and your writing style. Please include a “Works Cited” list at the end of your draft.
INDIVIDUAL
(CONFERENCE) PRESENTATIONS (10%)
In the last two weeks, we will hold a conference about the nature, status, and various manifestations of healthcare in the world in which we live. Each student will introduce her or his work in an exciting ten-minute presentation. We will group student presentations thematically into several panels, and at the end of each panel we will have a question-and-answer period followed by a discussion. Oral presentations are designed to help students summarize their argument, see the significance of their research, and its relatedness to their colleagues’ work in various other disciplines. Overall, the conference will be a tremendous learning opportunity for all participants, which will allow us to investigate and reflect on the nature of healthcare.
FINAL PAPER (Due 12/6
15 PP, 40%)
The final paper will show the mastery of your research skills, convincing argumentation, excellent writing skills, and effective presentation techniques.
From our class discussions and your reading interests, you will choose a topic, which you will define and narrow down, justify as significant and relevant, and present in an engaged, informed, and highly knowledgeable manner. In order to establish yourself as an authority on the subject, you will need to conduct extensive research, learn about various , often opposing, approaches to the issue, form your opinion, and be prepared to defend your position of arts and humanities, social sciences, or sciences.
A successful paper will find an appropriate and effective rhetorical mode for the topic discussed.
All papers should be word-processed, double-spaced, submitted in 12 point form and MLA formatted.
Assignments will be submitted at the beginning of class. No late work will be accepted without prior written approval from me.
GRADING
Assignments are graded in three different categories:
Global level (content, organization, development of your argument)
Local level (paragraphing, style, references)
Surface level (grammar, punctuation, vocabulary)
PEER REVIEW (11/17)
Prior to submission of the final paper, we will have a peer
review. Come prepared to read critically
your classmates’ materials. Each student
will review TWO rough drafts of major assignments and write peer reports. Peer reports count toward the participation
grade. The absence of such reports will
reflect in your overall grade.
ADDITIONAL HELP
Service (CLAS): 893-3269. CLAS helps students increase their mastery of course material through course-specific tutoring and academic skills development. Visit www.clas.ucsb.edu for more information or visit their office, Building 477, 9-5 daily. Make sure you ask for the blue ship as a confirmation of your appointment with CLAS.
LATE PAPER POLICY
No late work will be accepted without prior written approval from me. If you have a conflict, alert me immediately.
Students with
Disabilities
Disabled
Students Program (DSP) provides a wide array of academic support services to eligible
students with documented disabilities. These services include note
takers, readers, sign language interpreters, facilitation of access, and
adaptive computing equipment. If you
have a disability and would like to discuss accommodations, please contact them
(893-2668) directly and/or me as soon as possible.
ATTENDANCE AND
PARTICIPATION
ATTENDANCE IS
MANDATORY. Attendance and participation
are crucial to successful classroom experience.
You are expected to come to class having read the assigned texts and any
related material. Always be prepared to
write about the day’s reading. We will
begin class from time to time with a short “quick-write” associated with the
unit we are working on; these will not be announced. Excessive absenteeism (more than 2) will
seriously affect your grade. I
do not differentiate from excused and unexcused absences so save them for when
you need them.
Plagiarism
Don’t do it! You are responsible for the content and
integrity of all of your work in this class.
Cheating and plagiarism will, at a minimum, result in an F for the
project and may result in failing this course or expulsion from the University. Plagiarism is defined as the act of using the
ideas of work of another person or persons as if they were one’s own, without
giving proper credit to the sources.
This includes, but is not limited to, failure to use quotation marks
when quoting from outside source, submitting a paper written by a friend or
purchased from a term paper service, or retyping another student’s paper and
submitting it as one’s own.
Tentative Course Outline
Week 1
M 10/2 Introductions
Review of syllabus
Course Overview
W 10/4 Viewing: Frankenstein
Read for Mon: Hacker 295-325 (skim)
Week 2
M 10/9 Discussion: Performers
The nature of Research: Finding and Narrowing a Topic
Journal Entry #1: In Class
Assignment: Personal response to Movie/tv show
Read for Wed: Hacker 37-54 (skim)
Read: Politicians
W 10/11 Discussion: Politicians
Generating an Argument
Read for Wed: Hacker 300-310
Read: Practitioners
Journal Entry #2: Brainstorm
list of research topics related to healthcare (5-10)
Week 3
M 10/16 Library visit, room 1575, Sylvia Curtis: Finding sources
Read for Mon: Hacker 316-320
W 10/18 Discussion: Practitioners
Writing an annotated bibliography
Journal Entry #3: List of
Narrowed Research Topics (2-3), followed by a paragraph for each topic,
indicating possible arguments and counter-arguments
Read for
Monday: Hacker 310-316
Week 4
M 10/23 Evaluating Sources
Journal
Entry #4: In class assignment—response
to reading
Read for Wed Hacker
295-300
W 10/25 Formulating a research question
Journal
Entry #5: Commentary on your library
search
Reminder: Conferences on Friday
F 10/27 Conferences in my office, Girvetz 1310
Week 5
M 10/30 Argument and Counter Argument
Journal
Entry #6: Focused Topic on Statement of
Purpose
Annotated
Bibliography due (10+ sources; 10%)
W 11/1 Viewing, Medical Mistakes
Week 6
M 11/6 Brief introductions to individual research projects (5 mins oral presentations)
Read for Wed: Hacker 334-340
W 11/8 Integrating quotations
Journal
Entry #7: Imaginary dialogue between two
of your sources
Week 7
M 11/13 Reading critically
Peer review of
paper draft (bring two copies in class)
Read for Wed: Casella on ERES
(157—192)
W 11/15 Preparing for Oral presentations
Paper
Draft due (5-7 pp, 10%) include peer responses
Journal
Entry #8: Commentary on the Paper Draft
Week 8
M 11/20 Individual Conferences
W 11/22 Individual Conferences
Week 9
M 11/27 Panel 1 Presentations
W 11/29 Panel 2 Presentations
Week 10
M 12/4 Panel 3 presentations
Journal Entry #9: Commentary on
Preparation for Conference Presentation
W 12/6 Panel 4 presentations
Finals Papers due
Journal entry #10: Commentary
and Self Evaluation on the Final Project